S3 Trio or Virge? Maybe slap in a Voodoo alongside?

I agree with SquallStrife on the S3 cards, they appear to be the most flexible GPU's of that era.
Blacksvk, what do you intend to use your rig for?

S3 cards from what I have been reading lately are almost a sure thing but not the fastest. Look into getting a voodoo if possible as they got plenty of raw power as do the riva cards. Trident well not many got performance going for them.

S3 most definitely - any brand will do, but some brands will do better then the rest (Diamond stealth or similar). You will also be quite happy with matrox millenium, but S3 is compatible with almost anything you throw at it - and if you pack it with a Voodoo 1 or 2, it will be a blast 😀

Why not an ATI Rage II or so, or a TNT?

Jorpho wrote:

Why not an ATI Rage II or so, or a TNT?

Aren't these AGP cards?

Markk wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

Why not an ATI Rage II or so, or a TNT?

Aren't these AGP cards?

Not all, there are pci TNT cards but they can be Hard to find. The rage cards that are pci are a dime a dozen.

TNT may be a bit overkill for that processor level. Perhaps a RIVA 128 or 128ZX might fit the bill; they have pretty good DOS VESA compatibility and suffice if you also want some 3D-accelerated gaming in there.

Voodoo Banshee. It can almost run Quake 3 playable with low setting on my Pentium 2 rig. 🤣 Runs Carmageddon and Quake 1 perfectly. Also it doesn't need a second card for 2D. It is the first 2D/3D-combo card from 3DFx.

I would suggest Matrox Millenium, Millenium II or Mystique. I'm a big Matrox fan, I love both their software and hardware. For 3D a Voodoo 1 would be nice.

I had a QDI Explorer II as my socket 7 retro machine, too (later replaced by an Asus TX97-E). It's based on 430VX chipset, so it supports Pentium MMX CPUs. I used a Matrox Mystique 220 as 2D card and a Voodoo 1 as 3D card. That rig was almost able to play Unreal smoothly.

2-D: Diamond Stealth 3D-2000 Pro/4mb
3-D: Voodoo1/4mb
worked well for me.

EDIT: or a Voodoo 2 of course

Nikiz wrote:

It is the first 2D/3D-combo card from 3DFx.

The voodoo rush disagrees 😁

Davros wrote:

The voodoo rush disagrees 😁

Some of us try to deny the existence of that thing. You're not helping 🤣

Now now, avoidance is not the answer. Suppression will get you nowhere! 😉

leileilol wrote:

Davros wrote:

The voodoo rush disagrees 😁

Some of us try to deny the existence of that thing. You're not helping 🤣

Come, now! There may have been some inefficiencies in the way it was implemented, but it's not THAT bad.

sliderider wrote:

leileilol wrote:

Davros wrote:

The voodoo rush disagrees 😁

Some of us try to deny the existence of that thing. You're not helping 🤣

Come, now! There may have been some inefficiencies in the way it was implemented, but it's not THAT bad.

You are right, its not THAT bad, its THAT horrible. I'd still stick to S3:
it will be recognized and directly supported by any older game and the reason I personally love it is the game "balls of steel". That game will usually not work at all with anything newer, but with S3 it works like a charm!

ATI (rage and co) will give you very nice image output but from a compatibility point of view - its miles away from S3. You will most certainly always need some 3rd party program or patch 'to make things work'. Not worth it from todays perspective, really not.

I agree the S3 Virge solution for 2D work is best and the Stealth 3D-2000 pro was a very good performer in this regard. No hassle with the old games, *just works*, freeing precious time to figure out how the hey to get those early 3dfx game running smoothly on your cool Voodoo 1...

sliderider wrote:

Come, now! There may have been some inefficiencies in the way it was implemented, but it's not THAT bad.

As long as it's not a model with blurry analog signal quality, like the Intense 3D Voodoo that I had a few years ago. And hopefully your game choices work with Rush (it's not fully Voodoo Graphics compatible).